Shirley
Rachael Kim
World Issue
24 January 2016
The role of UN
United Nations officially came into existence on 24, October 1945, the purpose of which was to promote international co-operation. 51 countries including China were original member states, while it has expanded to 193 countries nowadays according to the map of Member States of UN by Decades (2006-2015). As the most representative organization, UN has tackled countless global challenges and helped millions of people, so definitely its role in world issues is irreplaceable. This essay will mainly focus on its contribution to economic development, human rights and environment.
Stimulating economic development
Economic growth has always been one of the key issues of United Nations, and therefore United Nations Economic and Social Commission was founded in 1946 to promote economy. Later, five regional commissions were created one by one to “fulfill the economic and social goals set out in the Charter by promoting cooperation and integration between countries in each region of the world.”(ESCWA)
In 1947, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific was founded. It emphasizes on bridging economic gaps among member states by national cooperation and integration. For example, there is a group in the Asia-Pacific region, which is composed of 31 countries with special needs. From the year-end update, these developing economies grew by an estimated 4.5 percent in 2015.
In 1958, the commission for Africa was founded. ECA works in macroeconomic policy, placing emphasis on several areas like economic transformation to promote the economic development in Africa. A successful story is the transformation of agriculture to reduce poverty. About four out of five Africans rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, so it can be expected to be one of Africa’s key drivers for sustainable growth if all the works are done well. The director of the Macroeconomic Policy Division in ECA said, “Increased agricultural productivity, combined with viable agribusiness that adds value to farmers’ production and improved access to markets, can `drive broader economic growth and make a tremendous contribution to the attainment of food security.”
The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA,1973 ) which was the latest one, aims to “help the Arab region to attain long-term dynamic growth and equitable development” by economic monitoring, research, knowledge management, policy advice and capacity-building. For instance, ESCWA Technology for Development Division organized a panel discussion on "Innovation and Technology Policies for an Inclusive Knowledge Economy" on the 3rd Session of the Arab Forum for Scientific Research and Sustainable Development. The discussion agreed on several recommendations like “the need for formulating and implementing STI policies to stimulate an inclusive knowledge-based economy in the Arab region”, which aims for stimulating the economic development of Arab region.
The UN has played an important role on the promotion of economic growth. It not only guides less developed regions to boom economy, but also helps well developed areas to narrow wealth gap.
Solving environmental problems
The United Nations not only pays attention to the economic development, but environmental issues. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that has made a contribution to sustainable development in six aspects since 1973. The contribution made by UNEP on climate change, conflicts & disasters and resources efficiency will be discussed.
Climate change is definitely the most urgent environmental problems. The world is already experiencing the impacts of climate change, from sea-level rise to melting glaciers, to more extreme weather patterns. According to the chart of IPCC AR5 scenarios, keeping temperature increase below 2°C/1.5°C by 2100 is UNEP’s aim. With the lead of UNEP, there are numerous success stories, including “CCAC founding member Mexico, which integrated SLCPs into its Special Programme on Climate Change and adopted a proposal on heavy-duty vehicle emissions standards that will virtually eliminate fine particle emissions, including black carbon from diesel trucks.”(UNEP) According to UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2014, “Between 2015 and 2030, energy efficiency improvements worldwide could avoid at least 2.5-3.3 Gt CO2 annually.”, which is helpful to mitigate global warming.